Blinded by the light cast
The fact that I was so affected by Springsteen’s songs shows just how powerfully music can transcend race, religion, nationality and class. In the music of Bruce Springsteen I found both hope and wisdom on how I could transcend my circumstances and make my dreams to be a writer come true. Mannzoor says, “Growing up in Eighties Luton as the working class son of Pakistani Muslim immigrants my world felt very small. Says Chadha, “I quickly pitched him the film we wanted to make from the book on the red carpet and to our excitement Bruce nodded and said, ‘Sounds good, talk to Jon.’ We then spent several years developing a script we knew had to impress Springsteen and managers Jon Landau and Barbara Carr or there would be no film without his music and blessings.”Ĭhadha and producing partner Jane Barclay have gathered a mix of new and familiar British comedy talent for the cast including Kulvinder Ghir ( Still Open All Hours), Hayley Atwell (the Avengers franchise), Rob Brydon ( The Trip movies), Sally Phillips ( Bridget Jones’s Diary) and newcomers Viveik Kalra ( Next Of Kin) and Nell Williams as romantic leads.
Blinded by the light cast tv#
So I listened to a lot of his music, watched a lot of his documentaries, watched his fans going insane for him, and after a while it dawned on me, he just seems like such a grounded guy.EOne's Michael Lombardo On Hasbro-Owned Company's TV Strategy: 'Dungeons & Dragons' And 'Power Rangers' Universes, 'Monopoly' Game Show & More Bloomsbury But to portray Roops correctly, I felt like I might not be able to have the same level of fandom as him, but I needed to understand what it was about this guy’s words that could resonate so well to an Indian seventeen-year-old in Luton. Before, I knew the name that was the extent of it. Thanks to this woman right here I am now. Now he sings about people like me.Īaron Phagura (the young actor who plays Roops, the hero’s Sikh friend from school who turns him on to Springsteen): The film made me one. In many ways he used to sing about people like my parents. And as he says, no one wins unless we all win. And sort of reminds us that these are the people that build our cities, build our world, and keep it running. His stories that he conjures up in is songs are about ordinary people who are trying to get by, have a living, raise their kids, when there’s a lot of struggle around they may be poor, they may be migrants, they may have got laid off, but generally speaking, they’re ordinary people who are living ordinary lives. With Bruce, what I admire most about him is that he’s a man of the people.
But I’ve been a fan since I was in school, so I’ve appreciated him most of my life. PM: You seem like you’re a Springsteen fan almost on the level of Sarfraz. And again, that felt utterly different than anything I’d heard before. It feels sort of like a mini-film and the narrative propulsion of that made me think, I want to know what happens to these characters. I really wanted to know what happens next. It was just a different thing, you know? Then he starts the song, and the first lines are ‘I come from down in the Valley, where mister when you’re young, They bring you up to do just like your daddy done.’ That’s incredible that’s like a short story. Now I was a Top Forty kind of kid, so I listened to pop music, Madonna and Michael Jackson and Prince, and I just didn’t realize that musicians did this, that they told stories, about themselves. And the reason was that-I dunno if you’ve heard the live box set version-but basically it starts, not with him singing the song but doing quite a long preamble about his dad, and a story about growing up with his dad. Sarfraz Manzoor (writer): The song which kind of opened me up the most, initially, was “The River.” And it was the live box set version. PHOENIX Magazine: What was the first Springsteen song you heard?
On a recent visit to Phoenix, Manzoor, director Gurinder Chadha, and co-star Aaron Phagura sat down for a chat with PHOENIX Magazine about their Springsteen enthusiasm (answers have been edited for length): Manzoor decided to pursue a writing career, in part, through an inspiration that seemed unlikely, at least to his traditional family: his passion for the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen. The English coming-of-age comedy-drama Blinded by the Light, opening this weekend, is based on the teenage years of Sarfraz Manzoor, a Pakistani immigrant who grew up in Luton, England.